1. The Culture War and Voting Behaviorin U.S. House Elections.
- Author
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Knuckey, Jonathan
- Subjects
- *
SOCIAL values , *POLITICAL parties , *POLITICAL affiliation , *POLITICAL culture , *VOTING - Abstract
Recent studies of political behavior in the United States have stressed the growing importance of cultural values and social issues as determinants vote choice and party identification. The emergence of a new line of cleavage is indicative of realignment, however realignment scholarship suggests that change will first be evident at the presidential level before filtering down to political offices at the subpresidential level. This paper examines whether cultural and social issues have come to structure vote choice in U.S. House elections in the same way that many scholars argue that they have in presidential elections. The paper is also concerned as to whether cultural issues condition the impact of party identification on U.S. House vote choice, that are moral and cultural “traditional” Democrats and “tolerant” Republicans more likely to defect and vote for the other party. Overall, it is hoped that this study will enhance our understanding of social and cultural issues on vote choice as well as more generally illuminating recent partisan changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2004
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